New Wine: A Nod to Napa Valley History

Blog Post

As we introduce our first bottling of Frediani Ranch, we asked Lytton Springs Winemaker Shauna Rosenblum for the story behind this legendary vineyard, why we decided to craft a blend that’s a throwback to Napa Valley history, and how Frediani Ranch has remained a respite for some of the area’s most rare, old-school grape varieties:

“Sometimes in life, the universe delivers instructions, and it’s up to us to pay attention.”

Our First Introduction to Frediani Ranch

“Several years back, RIDGE started purchasing beautiful valdiguié fruit from the Frediani Ranch in the Calistoga area of Napa Valley. These vines, planted between the 1950s and 1970s, are rare because most of the obscure grapes that were planted in Napa during that time have since been pulled out in favor of growing cabernet sauvignon.

“We were excited to work with something so historic and unique to the Napa Valley. After producing a few small vintages of valdiguié from Frediani, we also started purchasing the neighboring blocks of charbono and petite sirah. We were not sure what we were going to do with them, but they were high quality, so we wanted to try making them. These blocks are all planted next to each other, although that didn’t strike me as pertinent until some new information came to light.

The Inspiration for our First Frediani Ranch Blend

“We have a tasting group called ‘The Friday Humbling.’ We meet each week and taste wines with the labels covered. We don’t know what the wines are, and our mission is to evaluate the wine by using aroma, flavor, structure, color, and body to figure out the varietal, the vintage, and the place of origin. One Friday afternoon, we tasted a wine that stumped us as far as guessing the varietal composition. We revealed the wine, and it was a Frog’s Leap red blend of valdiguié, charbono, and petite sirah. The back label touted this as a once-common blend in the Napa Valley. Lightbulb moment.

“After our tasting I went into the cellar and created a blend of our Frediani valdiguié, charbono and petite sirah. I was shocked at how well these three varieties went together. The boldness and black fruit of the petite sirah, the savory, rustic nature of the charbono, and the light, playful red fruit from the valdiguié had great synergy.

A Purposeful Blend from Napa’s Grape-Growing History

“The next day I immersed myself in some Napa Valley history and learned that most wineries in Napa in the 1970s did some version of this blend and called it red table wine. It suddenly made sense why the valdiguié, charbono and petite sirah were all planted next to each other. We see this in old zinfandel field blends, where there are complementary varieties planted side by side. This is intentional. Back in the old days of the wine industry, wine wasn’t blended in the cellar, it was blended in the field by means of the pattern of the plantings.

“The farmers took great care in deciding upon the order in which grapes were planted because they would send the harvest crew out to pick, and all the grapes were picked together. When the grapes came into the winery, they all went into one tank, and the blend was assembled. They knew to plant varieties with different qualities that also ripened at slightly different times in order to make a complete wine. Petite sirah added color, structure, and power to a wine. Valdiguié was the acid component and added a lighter fruit component too. Charbono toned down the fruitiness and gave the wine a bit more of a savory quality.

“We did several blind tastings of our own version of this historic blend until we landed on the 40% valdiguié, 37% petite sirah, 23% charbono. We hope you enjoy tasting this wine, our effort to pay homage to the Frediani family and Napa Valley’s rich viticultural history.”

The First RIDGE Frediani Ranch Blend

2022 Frediani Ranch: Valdiguié, Petite Sirah & Charbono

This once-common blend pays homage to the side-by-side plantings of these three varietals at the Frediani Ranch. The valdiguié was picked the morning before the Labor Day heat wave. The other two heartier varieties were left on the vine for sixteen days longer before reaching optimal ripeness. Incredible concentration, structure, and bright acidity make this unique wine enjoyable over the next decade. SR (2/24)

An ATP-Exclusive Release

This limited bottling will be released exclusively to ATP members as part of the Spring 2025 club shipment. Join ATP for access to this wine and an array of other small-production, winery-only releases in store for 2025.